Chest
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To describe the risk factors for the development of and mortality resulting from acute respiratory failure (ARF) in a large patient population. ⋯ The present study stresses that ARF is common in the ICU (56% of all patients) and that a number of extrapulmonary factors are related to the risk of development of ARF and to mortality rate in these patients.
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Multicenter Study
Prognostic judgments and triage decisions for patients with acute congestive heart failure.
To determine how well triage physicians judge the probability of death or severe complications that require treatment only available in an ICU to maintain life for patients with acute congestive heart failure (CHF). ⋯ Physicians drastically overestimated the probability of a severe complication that would require critical care for patients with acute CHF who were candidates for ICU admission. Their judgments of this probability were associated with their triage decisions, as they should be according to several guidelines for ICU triage. Overestimation of the probability of severe complications may have lead to overutilization of scarce critical care resources. Current critical care triage guidelines should be revised to take this difficulty into account, and better predictive models for patients potentially requiring critical care should be developed.